Hoerner takes blame for Steele's rough outing as Cubs lose badly to Red Sox
In his first start after appearing in the All-Star Game, Justin Steele delivered his worst performance of the season.
Steele was tagged with 6 earned runs in 6 innings, but it could have conceivably been 1 earned run if not for a misplay by shortstop Nico Hoerner in the fifth inning that was ruled a hit.
Realistically, the Cubs were smacked around Wrigley Field in an 11-5 loss to Boston on Sunday. While the Red Sox clubbed 3 home runs, the Cubs collected their second hit of the game in the eighth inning.
Exit velocity provided an appropriate illustration. Eighteen of the 22 hardest-hit balls Sunday were by Red Sox batters.
But this one also could have been more interesting with a different fifth-inning outcome. Trailing 1-0 at the time, Boston catcher Connor Wong led off with a hard ground ball right at Hoerner, but it took a high hop and bounced off his glove into left field. Wong hustled his way to a double and the inning eventually included a two-out grand slam by Masataka Yoshida to make it 6-0.
"The ball to Nico, he makes that play 99 out of 100 times, right?" manager David Ross said. "That's a pretty routine play in the big leagues. You get that out, who knows where the game goes?"
Official scorers tend to call most questionable plays hits instead of errors these days, but Hoerner agreed it should have been scored differently.
"I just misplayed that ball," Hoerner said. "It shouldn't be earned runs for Steele for sure. Definitely a play I make almost every time, but I didn't and that's an error."
With Wong on second base, Yu Chang, Rob Refsnyder and Justin Turner followed with soft singles that brought in a run and left the bases loaded with nobody out. Steele then struck out Rafael Devers and retired Adam Duvall on a foul pop up. One out from ending the inning with the score 2-0, Steele fell behind Yoshida 2-0 and he ripped a rocket over the right field fence on the next pitch.
"I was trying to get him to roll over a ground ball," Steele said. "The first two pitches were pretty competitive and then 2-0, I just kind of had to throw a strike. He did what he was supposed to do."
Steele set a season-high by allowing 6 earned runs, to go with 10 hits, but he did make it through 6 innings. He allowed 5 earned runs and 10 hits in 3⅔ against the Reds on May 26.
"It's about the worst feeling in baseball when you make an error and it turns into runs," Hoerner said. "You take the field and things like that can happen, but yeah, that was kind of the turning point in the game, probably."
When the Cubs scored 5 runs in the last two innings, it was easy to say the game could have been competitive. But they were also flummoxed by Boston right-hander Kutter Crawford. Mike Tauchman singled to lead off the first, then the Cubs didn't get their next hit until a Christopher Morel single in the eighth.
The Cubs got help from 4 walks by Red Sox reliever Jake Faria in the eighth. Tauchman reached base five times on 2 singles and 3 walks. He singled in the ninth to drive in Trey Mancini, then scored on a Hoerner triple.
According to Statcast, Crawford threw mostly fastballs and cutters, averaging 93 miles per hour with his four-seam. He seemed to follow the blueprint set by Cleveland's Tanner Bibee two weeks ago of working high in the zone against the Cubs.
Crawford doesn't throw as hard as Bibee, but worked four different secondary pitches into hits mix, most frequently a knuckle curve.
It's fair to ask if the Cubs (43-49) are pressing, since they remain six games below .500 and know a sell-off could be in store by the Aug. 1 trade deadline if they don't start winning.
"I think playing baseball at this level already has high enough expectation and guys in the locker room hold themselves to really high standards," Hoerner said. "So I don't think that changes too much. There's no change as far as how you play or how you approach it.
"I think if anything, the attitude should be attacking it and embracing it and doing it on our own terms. (Getting traded) is not a decision anyone in this locker room is going to get to make, so control our end of it the best we can."
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